MPPA News

Regina McCombs is a faculty member of the Poynter Institute, teaching multimedia and helping develop distance-learning programs. Until last year, she was the senior producer for multimedia at StarTribune.com in Minneapolis-St. Paul. She arrived there after 13 years as a television producer and photographer at KARE-TV, the NPPA-winning powerhouse in the Twin Cities. Winner of numerous Best of Photojournalism and Pictures of the Year International awards for multimedia storytelling, as well as an Emmy for her video work, she has been a regular speaker around the country, talking about finding new ways to tell stories on the Web, especially with video.

For StarTribune.com, she coordinated the multimedia team’s coverage, shot and edited video stories, created audio slide shows, produced major projects and trained staff in creating multimedia. She also taught classes in online journalism and TV news at the University of Minnesota, where she received her master’s degree.

Matt Detrich

I have been a Senior Photographer at the Indianapolis Star since 1999 and to this day it still amazes me that I actually get paid to do what I love the most…make photographs while experiencing my subjects and the stories they have to tell. I was fortunate enough to be named Indiana News Photographer of the Year in 2001, 2006 and 2007 while also winning the Indiana Clip Photographer of the Year title for seven of the eleven years I have worked at the paper. I am also a five-time NPPA Region 4 POY while working in Indiana. This great job has not only given me the opportunity to grow within my own community, but it has taken me to places like Brazil, Europe, Afghanistan and Beijing, China to to cover the last Summer Olympics.

Before coming to Indianapolis, I worked as a photographer at The Akron (Ohio) Beacon Journal and as a 1994 graduate of Ohio University, I experienced five internships before starting my first job at The Medina County Gazette. I have a great and understanding wife, Tammy, and two daughters, Lauren, 11 and Lindsay, 8.

Steve Jessmore is the Senior Editor for Photo at The Sun News in Myrtle Beach South Carolina. Jessmore has won numerous state and national photojournalism awards including the Robert F. Kennedy photojournalism award for outstanding coverage of the disadvantaged. He’s been NPPA Region 4 Photographer of the Year and a five-time MPPA Photographer of the Year, four times won consecutively. He is also a six-time Michigan Understanding Award winner and two-times Michigan Picture Editor of the year. He was a member of the 1997 NPPA Flying Short Course faculty and also the 2000 Mountain Workshop at Western Kentucky University. He was the only person to have coordinated a State, shot images and be a Senior Editor on the 2003 America 24/7 project. A graduate of Central Michigan University majoring in Journalism, Jessmore received the 2000 Distinguished Journalism Alumni Award. He was an adjunct professor at CMU teaching photojournalism from 2001-2007. In 2007 he was inducted to CMU Journalism’s Hall of Fame. Born in Saginaw, Michigan. Worked in hometown for 14 years, previously as chief photographer at the Saginaw News. Resides in Pawleys Island, SC with wife of 28-years Lisa, and sons Andrew, 20, and Alex, 18, and daughter Lindsay, 13.